Relationships between stress, anxiety, arousal and sports document
Stress
Stress is a pattern of negative physiological responses occurring in situations where people
perceive threats to their well being, which they may be unable to meet. There are two types
of stress, these are Eustress and Distress. Eustress is described as positive or beneficial
stress, whereas DIstress is highlighted as a negative and harmful kind of stress.
Eustress will help an athlete perform and it challenges the individual to achieve a personal
goal. Whereas, distress will affect and harm an individual in a physical or mental way. An
example of this is when a player has to take a penalty in an important match, that will decide
the outcome of the game. This will result in him becoming distressed about this situation, he
will get nervous and anxious, as well as that it’s more likely that his performance will drop
and he will miss his shot.
Causes of Stress
Stress can be caused by many factors, these factors include:
Internal – This is all about emotions and feelings that link to your mind. Many internal factors
cause stress by an individual over thinking about a certain situation, and the way that they
feel about that situation.
External – The stress in this factor is linked to the situations around you and these situations
highlight how your mind will react to them. It occurs when an individual is put in an
uncomfortable situation.
Personal – This factor is based around personal worries and problems that an individual has.
They will link to things like a relative passing away, relative poverty or being unemployed.
Occupational – This is where a mismatch between perceived effort and perceived reward
happens. An individual will put a lot of effort into their work however, they won’t or will
receive minimal reward for it, this could include no praise or no pay rise.
Sports Environments – You can become stressful depending on the sporting environment
you find yourself in. It could depend on how important a competition is for example, if it’s a
World Cup Final in football there will be more stress between individuals due to the rank of
the match.
Symptoms of Stress
, Cognitive – These symptoms of stress are experienced through thoughts. There are long
term symptoms resulting from stress that cause damage to your health and well-being, both
physically and mentally. Examples being inability to concentrate and seeing only negative
things.
Somatic – These symptoms of stress are experienced by physical factors. Symptoms
include, low energy, headaches, frequent colds and muscle pain.
Behavioural – Symptoms of this kind are experienced through your emotions and behaviour.
Examples of this will include, over-eating, under-eating, anger and loss of motivation.
Effects of Stress on Sports Performance
Nervous system responses – When you are stressed, your muscles will tighten and you may
sweat, feel cold, your heart rate will increase and your temperature will either rise or lower.
These are the things that may happen to you during the stress in a sporting situation, for
example before taking a penalty. This will most likely give a negative impact on your
performance.
Negative mental state – This is when your thoughts will be negative. This will have a
massive negative impact on your sports performance, as you will think of every situation in a
negative way instead of being positive. This will then result in your mindset being negative,
which will make you think that you will fail at every chance you will get and that will cause a
decrease in your performance.
Loss of self confidence and concentration – When you are stressed you are more likely to
lose your self confidence and concentration in the process. This is because when you will
have an opportunity and you fail, your self confidence will decrease as you thought that you
were going to fail anyway. This will drop your performance as you won’t want to try it again.
Anxiety
Anxiety is the negative aspect of experiencing stress. It is the worry that is experienced due
to fear of failure. There are two types of anxiety:
Stress
Stress is a pattern of negative physiological responses occurring in situations where people
perceive threats to their well being, which they may be unable to meet. There are two types
of stress, these are Eustress and Distress. Eustress is described as positive or beneficial
stress, whereas DIstress is highlighted as a negative and harmful kind of stress.
Eustress will help an athlete perform and it challenges the individual to achieve a personal
goal. Whereas, distress will affect and harm an individual in a physical or mental way. An
example of this is when a player has to take a penalty in an important match, that will decide
the outcome of the game. This will result in him becoming distressed about this situation, he
will get nervous and anxious, as well as that it’s more likely that his performance will drop
and he will miss his shot.
Causes of Stress
Stress can be caused by many factors, these factors include:
Internal – This is all about emotions and feelings that link to your mind. Many internal factors
cause stress by an individual over thinking about a certain situation, and the way that they
feel about that situation.
External – The stress in this factor is linked to the situations around you and these situations
highlight how your mind will react to them. It occurs when an individual is put in an
uncomfortable situation.
Personal – This factor is based around personal worries and problems that an individual has.
They will link to things like a relative passing away, relative poverty or being unemployed.
Occupational – This is where a mismatch between perceived effort and perceived reward
happens. An individual will put a lot of effort into their work however, they won’t or will
receive minimal reward for it, this could include no praise or no pay rise.
Sports Environments – You can become stressful depending on the sporting environment
you find yourself in. It could depend on how important a competition is for example, if it’s a
World Cup Final in football there will be more stress between individuals due to the rank of
the match.
Symptoms of Stress
, Cognitive – These symptoms of stress are experienced through thoughts. There are long
term symptoms resulting from stress that cause damage to your health and well-being, both
physically and mentally. Examples being inability to concentrate and seeing only negative
things.
Somatic – These symptoms of stress are experienced by physical factors. Symptoms
include, low energy, headaches, frequent colds and muscle pain.
Behavioural – Symptoms of this kind are experienced through your emotions and behaviour.
Examples of this will include, over-eating, under-eating, anger and loss of motivation.
Effects of Stress on Sports Performance
Nervous system responses – When you are stressed, your muscles will tighten and you may
sweat, feel cold, your heart rate will increase and your temperature will either rise or lower.
These are the things that may happen to you during the stress in a sporting situation, for
example before taking a penalty. This will most likely give a negative impact on your
performance.
Negative mental state – This is when your thoughts will be negative. This will have a
massive negative impact on your sports performance, as you will think of every situation in a
negative way instead of being positive. This will then result in your mindset being negative,
which will make you think that you will fail at every chance you will get and that will cause a
decrease in your performance.
Loss of self confidence and concentration – When you are stressed you are more likely to
lose your self confidence and concentration in the process. This is because when you will
have an opportunity and you fail, your self confidence will decrease as you thought that you
were going to fail anyway. This will drop your performance as you won’t want to try it again.
Anxiety
Anxiety is the negative aspect of experiencing stress. It is the worry that is experienced due
to fear of failure. There are two types of anxiety:
